New Year's jump in Long Beach nets Pastrana 269 feet

Daredevil, Travis Pastrana, previously noted for being the first to do a double backflip on a motorcycle, and winning four straight Rally America championships, lands his rally car successfully on a barge moored in the Long Beach, California harbor. Image Credit: Matt Kartozian, US Presswire

2010 New Year's jump in Long Beach nets Pastrana 269 feet

X Game standout and action sports regular Travis Pastrana set a new world record to open up the new year, 2010, on ESPN.

The daredevil shattered the world record for the longest jump in a rally car last Thursday night, making a nearly perfect flight of 269 feet from the Pine Street Pier onto a barge anchored in the harbor.

After teasing the crowd, estimated to near 20,000 thousand, with a warmup run down the 1,000-foot run-in and up the takeoff ramp, Pastrana took off in serious fashion, flying across approximately 200 feet of water to the landing ramp on the barge just a few minutes after midnight EST to bring in the new year.

His Subaru skidded sideways after landing and slammed into a wall at the end of the barge, but Pastrana emerged unscathed, ran to the end of the barge and after getting his response from the crowd, did a backflip into the Long Beach harbor water.

The old record was 171 feet set by Pastrana's Subaru teammate, Ken Block, in a rally car in November 2006. Pastrana wanted to break that mark by more than 100 feet.

"The flight was awesome," the 26-year-old daredevil said. "I couldn't have asked for anything better."

Asked to comment on his celebration jump from the Red Bull landing ramp into the harbor waters ... "It's soft," jester-ed Pastrana. "It was a lot colder than I anticipated."

He broke the old record by 98 feet.

"This is one of the cooler feelings, just to be part of something so huge," Pastrana continued. "It was kind of pass or fail. It was just a really good time and trying to push the envelope of what's possible in a car."

The stunt was the latest in Red Bull's New Year, No Limits series.

Happy 2010 to Travis Pastrana, Red Bull, Subaru, the City of Long Beach, and all who just love the setting of world record marks in this Motor Culture world.

... notes from The EDJE